Neither fear nor vanity prompted Sonia to decline office

The story of Sonia Gandhi has not quite been a fairytale. But then fairytales are predictable and sometimes monotonous. In real life, there is no such thing as “Happily Ever After”.

On December 9, 2017 she would be 71 years old and on the threshold of yet another momentous turning point in her life. After 19 unbroken years as the President of the oldest political party of the world’s largest democracy, she would be voluntarily stepping down and handing over the baton to her successor.

At a personal level, she will undoubtedly be overwhelmed by a wave of indescribably complex and profound emotions as she looks back at her two decades at the helm of the Congress party – and at the three decades before that, starting from the day she became the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi back in 1968.

The fairytale script of her idyllic existence was shattered for the first time on that fateful morning of October 31, 1984, when she cradled her mother-in-law’s blood-drenched body on her lap on the way to the hospital.

The second devastating calamity that snuffed out all hopes of a happily-ever-after ending to her personal life story took place less than seven years later, on May 21, 1991, when her husband’s body was brought back from Sriperumbudur, 2000 kilometers away. Sonia Gandhi was suddenly adrift and bereft, with only a 21-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter to cling to in grief-stricken emptiness.

Nobody really knows what nightmares and traumas she went through over the next few years or how she groomed and guided her children during those difficult times.

But there is a saying that “something devastating can always be transformed into something remarkable, if you choose to find that one positive in a nest of negatives”.

So it was with Sonia Gandhi. For six years she chose to stay away from politics and rebuffed offers of a leadership role in the party. Then in 1997, at the age of 51, she took a momentous decision that would have far-reaching ramifications for the Congress Party, for herself and her own family members and indeed for the history of modern India.

Sonia Gandhi enrolled as a primary member of the party at its Calcutta Plenary Session and, a year later in 1998, was elected President of the Congress Party amidst controversy over the party’s electoral defeat under Sitaram Kesri.

In 1999, with the installation of a BJP-led government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha. After five years on the Opposition benches, she led the party to power in 2004, with the support of a United Progressive Alliance coalition of ten Centre-Left parties.

Then came May 18, 2004, and one of the most poignant episodes in the annals of Indian politics. It was an utterly un-expected “Qurbani Mom-ent”, when the nation and the world watched with amazement as Sonia Gandhi declined to become Prime Minister of India.

The elections were over, Vajpayee’s BJP had been defeated and the Congress-led UPA was poised to form a coalition government. Sonia Gandhi had been widely expected to become the country’s second woman Prime Minister, and the formalities of being duly chosen by the party’s working committee had been completed.

But she stunned her supporters and adversaries alike by declining to take up the post. She told her newly-elected party MPs, many of whom were weeping in disbelief and disappointment: “The post of prime minister has not been my aim. I was always certain that, if ever I found myself in the position I am in today, I would follow my inner voice. I humbly decline the post.”

Her announcement triggered clamorous scenes with cries and entreaties that she should change her mind. Her response was firm: “I request that you accept my decision. I cannot reconsider. It is my inner voice, my conscience. My responsibility at this critical time is to provide India with a secular government that is strong and stable”.

Political analysts and adversaries have viewed this in various ways, each according to his or her perceptions and political predilections. Some have described it as a sublime sacrifice, rare in public life. Others have tried to seek hidden motives or lack of self-confidence.

Most have preferred to underplay the significance of the decision or to gloss over the episode entirely, erasing it from public memory as it were. But history could well judge it as an act of courage, not cowardice. It provided a glimpse of Sonia Gandhi’s character. The “inner voice” that influenced her decision was her conscience, her sense of duty.

Sometimes in life, you do things you don’t want to. Sometimes you sacrifice, sometimes you compromise. Sometimes you let go and sometimes you fight. It’s all about deciding what’s worth losing and what’s worth keeping.

As learned philosophers have told us, it is not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What is hard, is figuring out what you are willing to give up, in order to do things you really care about.

Today, as she prepares to step down as President of the Congress party, the very least her countrymen owe is an acknowledgement that her “Qurbani” was not an impulsive gesture born out of fear or vanity. It was her sense of patriotism, deeply instilled political education imparted by her husband Rajiv Gandhi and above all her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi instinctively knew what was worth losing and what was worth keeping. She had figured out what she was willing to give up, so that she could do the things she really cared about the most. That is what half a century of breathing the spirit of India teaches you.